Frontlist | Verify foreign content before publishing: Press Council of India

Frontlist | Verify foreign content before publishing: Press Council of India
on Nov 30, 2020

The media houses in India got an advisory note from the Press Council of India (PCI) on Wednesday to publish extracts from foreign publications only after due verification. The Indian publications will be held responsible for the reportage, irrespective of from where it sourced the article, warned the quasi-judicial body. The PCI advisory said the Press Council has considered references received by the government from various quarters about the responsibility of Indian newspapers in publishing foreign content. The unregulated circulation of foreign content is not desirable. The advisory reads, Hence, it advises the media to publish foreign extracts in Indian newspapers with due verification as reporter, publisher and editor of such newspaper shall be responsible for the contents irrespective of the source from which it is received. The advisory has now fixed the legal responsibility. There were concerns about who will be held responsible in case of content that is published from foreign sources or from foreign authors. The PCI received submissions about this from the readers as well as the government so it was decided that the legal responsibility of what is published will rest with the Indian publication that prints the content, the official said. The Press Council of India PCI is an autonomous, statutory, quasi-judicial body set up in 1966 to preserve the press freedom, and to establish a code of conduct for newspapers and news agencies and journalists.